LOS ANGELES - Two of the top programs in America square off this weekend when USC's men's and women's swimming and diving teams host Texas to open the 2003-04 season on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 24-25) at the McDonald's Swim Stadium. Friday's events, swum in short course meters, begin at 1 p.m. and Saturday's schedule begins at 11 a.m. Stanford's women's swimming and diving teams will also compete, but will only score against Texas.

LAST SEASON - USC's women finished third at NCAAs in 2003, its highest standing since winning the team title in 1997. The Trojan men took fifth. Both the men and women finished third at the Pac-10 Championships. Texas' men's squad was second last year at the NCAAs while its women were seventh. Stanford's women's team was sixth.

LAST SEASON AT TEXAS - Texas' women edged USC by a point last year, 177-176, while the Longhorn men beat the Trojans, 208-143.

HELLO AND GOODBYE - USC said goodbye to some standouts last year, but have some new blood that should help the Trojans maintain their elite status. Gone is five-time NCAA title winner Erik Vendt, but in comes freshman Larsen Jensen, an American record holder who seems poised to continue the distance-swimming dominance that Vendt enjoyed the last four years. Gone is the ultra-versatile All-American Jeff Lee, but in is the likes of prep standouts Sam Masson (back and fly), Gergely Meszaros (fly and free) and Sean Sussex (free). Gone for this year is All-American breaststroker Mihaly Flaskay, but in are freshmen Joon Youm (breast) and Alton Smith (breast, free and fly). On the women's side, gone is four-year All-American Michala Kwasny, but say hi to freshman Kalyn Keller, who, like Jensen, has a chance to be among the most dominant distance swimmers in the NCAA (though teammate Kaitlin Sandeno will have something to say about that). The women will also be without the service of All-American diver Blythe Hartley (who, like Flaskay, is training for the Olympics this year) and there isn't really a replacement for her (thankfully for USC, Nicci Fusaro and Lindsay Draper remain). But in addition to Keller, freshman Cait Connealy will give the swimmers a huge boost and freshman Kristina Sieper (breast) and senior transfer Merritt Johnson (free) will also lend help.

NEW IN THE WELL - USC's diving well will also feature some new board jumpers. On the men's side, freshmen Michael Hilde and Kenny Jenkins both should figure prominently in dual meets this year and will provide scoring punch at the Pac-10 meet and perhaps at NCAAs. For the women, Coach Hongping Li added a pair of divers in Tory Moreno and Tiffany Linder who could also help out in dual meet competitions and the Pac-10.

Mark Schubert - USC Coach Mark Schubert is in his 12th year at Troy. He will make his seventh consecutive Olympic coaching appearance in 2004 when he directs the U.S. women's team in Athens, Greece. Three years ago, he finished a stint as head coach of the U.S. men's swim team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Since he has been at USC, the men's and women's swimming programs are a combined 133-43. In his 33 years of coaching, Schubert has placed 28 swimmers on U.S. Olympic teams; these athletes have won 18 gold and eight silver medals, plus five world championship titles.

Hongping Li - An NCAA champion and two-time Olympian, Hongping Li is in his fifth season coaching USC's men's and women's divers. Li, the winner of the 1998 and 1999 United States Olympic Committee's "Diving Developmental Coach of the Year," award, came to USC after serving as the head coach of the Mission Viejo (Calif.) Nadadores Diving Team since 1993. Li has had immediate and tremendous success in his first four years at USC. In 2003, he helped guide Blythe Hartley and Nicci Fusaro to All-American showings at the NCAA Championships. Hartley was a three-time All-American for the second year in a row while Fusaro earned All-American honors for the third year in a row. Hartley, the 2002 NCAA Women's Diver of the Year, repeated as Pac-10 Women's Diver of the Year and Li repeated as Pac-10 Women's Diving Coach of the Year. In 2002, Fusaro joined with Hartley to become USC's only two divers to earn All-American honors in all three diving specialties in one NCAA meet. In 2001, Li guided Kellie Brennan to a pair of All-American honors (and her third consecutive Pac-10 1-meter title) and Fusaro to her first All-American honor at the 2001 NCAAs. Both also reached the top three at the 2001 U.S. Indoor Championships.